Obesity has been recognized as a significant and growing health problem on a global scale. Efforts to address this problem include, for example, surgical intervention, lifestyle changes, diet plans, exercise plans, nutritional supplements, satiety-inducing compositions, and many others. Although these efforts can be successful in the short term, long term success rates are generally much lower, resulting in the so-called “yo-yo” effect where weight is lost, then gained (often more than that lost), in a repeating cycle. Thus additional tools are needed, especially ones easy to implement and easy to use and which are convenient.
Protein-, fiber-, and fat-containing beverages are available. It has been found that such compositions can induce a feeling of satiety, thereby reducing the hungry feeling and assisting in reducing calorie intake from other foods. Such beverages are available in powdered forms for reconstitution in liquid by the consumer at the time of consumption and in ready-to-drink forms. Unfortunately, the commercial available beverage products suffer a number of drawbacks. Both powdered and ready-to-drink beverage products tend to possess poor, or at least less than desired, taste, mouthfeel, or other organoleptic properties. Powdered compositions, although more convenient to carry around than ready-to-drink beverage, are often difficult to reconstitute and generally require mechanical means, such as power blenders or mixers to solubilize the protein and other ingredients. This, of course, significantly reduces the convenience of the product. If such mechanical means are not used, incomplete solubility results in significantly reduced organoleptic properties, including, for example, grittiness. Additionally, such powdered compositions often use carriers such as sugar, maltodextrin, and the like, thereby significantly increasing the calorie content (generally 100 calories (total or digestible) or more per single serving) as well as the bulkiness of the product. Consumers are often willing to accept such products with their inherent defects because of the nutritional benefit expected from the product.
Of course, it would be desirable to provide powdered compositions from which beverages can be prepared and which provide the desired nutritional benefits, improved taste, mouthfeel, or other organoleptic properties. Ideally, such powdered compositions are also are easily prepared without mechanical means, and are low calorie, fat free, and contain low levels of net carbohydrates. Of course, the beverage prepared from the powdered composition should also have the desired effect of satiety. The present invention provides such compositions.